Kale and Quinoa Salad with Lemon Vinaigrette – Chunks of tender chicken, sweet raisins, parmesan cheese and sunflower seeds amidst a bed of bright, fresh kale and quinoa. Paired with a stunning homemade lemon vinaigrette, this simple salad is the perfect healthy lunch.
While I love my salads, I’m not one that goes out of her way to buy kale and make these “green goddess” salads. Nope that’s just not me. No matter how much people rave about how good kale is and how good it is for you, I kind of disagree because I’d rather eat bacon, let’s just put it that way.
Now bacon I can rave about for days. But sometimes in your life, and I mean just sometimes, like once in your lifetime kind of thing, you come across a kale salad that makes you smile and think to yourself that yeah I can eat kale salad and enjoy it.
Well I had one of these riveting experiences at Moxie’s when I ordered this kale and quinoa salad. While I have no idea what possessed me to order such an unheard of type of lunch for me, I did and I fell in love with it. As a food blogger, I just knew I had to recreate it myself.
The gorgeous green colour of the kale paired with the tender chicken, quinoa, crunchy sunflower seeds and bursts of sweet raisins – not to mention, the fresh parm and incredible, zesty, citrus flavor from the homemade lemon vinaigrette. This salad will make you feel good from the inside, out.
The benefits of kale and quinoa
Kale
Kale is one of the healthiest and most nutritious plant foods out there! It’s an extremely popular vegetable and is part of the cabbage family. Loaded with tons of antioxidants and a huge list of vitamins and minerals – this super green is the epitome of “health” food. It’s low in fat, calories and can help lower cholesterol – bonus! Kale can be used in a variety of different dishes and is something everyone should try and incorporate in their diets.
Quinoa
Quinoa; pronounced KEEN-wa – is gluten-free plant food. It is high in protein, fiber and contains all nine essential amino acids! With a low glycemic index and high mineral content it has beneficial properties for your metabolism. It can be easily incorporated into your diet and goes with many different dishes. It has a very subtle, almost non-existent taste on its own and will take on whatever flavor it is paired with making it very easy to add to your meals!
Ingredients
KeeKeep scrolling down to the recipe card for full ingredient amounts and instructions, or click the Jump To Recipe button at the top.
Salad
- Quinoa – Dry.
- Water – To cook quinoa.
- Chicken – I used chicken breasts; cooked, skinless and boneless -chopped small.
- Olive Oil – You can substitute for vegetable oil, sunflower oil, safflower oil, or avocado oil.
- Salt and Pepper – To taste.
- Garlic Powder – To taste.
- Kale – Fresh, chopped very small.
- Sunflower Seeds – I used unsalted. You can use any seed of your choice, pumpkin seeds would work well.
- Golden Raisins – You can substitute cranberries as well.
- Parmesan – Freshly grated. Feta would be good in this as well.
Lemon Vinaigrette
- Olive Oil – You can substitute for vegetable oil, sunflower oil, safflower oil, or avocado oil.
- Lemon Juice – I used fresh, you can use store bought if you’d like.
- Garlic – Fresh is best! Minced.
- Salt andPepper – To taste.
- Oregano – Dried.
- Honey – If you don’t have any honey, you can substitute maple syrup or agave.
How to make kale and quinoa salad
- Cook Quinoa – Start by combining 1 cup of water with the dry quinoa in a saucepan and bring it to a boil over medium high heat. Cover the saucepan and reduce the heat, let simmer until the quinoa is tender. If there’s any water left, make sure you drain the quinoa.
- Prepare Chicken – Add olive oil to a large skillet and heat over medium high heat. Add the chicken pieces, season with the salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Cook until chicken is no longer pink but starting to brown. Remove chicken from skillet and let cool.
- Mix Salad – In a large bowl toss together the kale, cooked chicken, quinoa, sunflower seeds and raisins.
Lemon Vinaigrette
- Mix Dressing – Whisk together all the ingredients for the lemon vinaigrette in a small bowl. Adjust salt and pepper as necessary.
- Toss – Pour the vinaigrette over the kale salad and toss well. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese before serving.
How to serve
You can serve your kale and quinoa salad on it’s own as a quick, healthy lunch or snack option. Try switching out the chicken for a different protein like salmon or you can serve it as a side dish to a nice dinner. If you want to add some more healthy options to your salad, why not try these!
- Broccoli
- Carrot
- Chives
- Pumpkin Seeds
- Cranberries
- Tomato
- Cucumber
- Pine Nuts
- Bell Pepper
- Onion
- Chickpea
- Parsley
- Feta
Leftovers
The beauty of this kale and quinoa salad is that it will absorb the flavor of the lemon vinaigrette over time, tasting even better the next day! Covered and stored in the fridge, it will keep for 3-5 days.
Did you like this healthy recipe? Try these!
- Kale Salad with Blueberry Vinaigrette
- Mushroom and Arugula Warm Salad
- Chicken Thighs with Sweet Potatoes Corn and Kale Bake
- Broccoli Salad
- Greek Chicken Red Quinoa Salad
- Moroccan Chicken Couscous
- Shrimp Ceviche
- California Quinoa Salad
- Avocado Tomato Salad
- Warm Kale Salad with Roasted Butternut Squash
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Kale and Quinoa Salad with Lemon Vinaigrette
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup quinoa dry
- 1 cup water
- 1 lb chicken breasts cooked, skinless and boneless, chopped small
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1/2 tsp salt or to taste
- 1 tsp pepper or to taste
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 5 cups kale chopped very small
- 1/4 cup sunflower seeds
- 1/4 cup golden raisins
- 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese freshly grated
Lemon Vinaigrette
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1/4 cup lemon juice fresh
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper ground
- 1 tsp oregano dried
- 1 tsp honey
Instructions
- Start by combining 1 cup of water with the dry quinoa in a saucepan and bring it to a boil over medium high heat. Cover the saucepan and reduce the heat to low, let it simmer for about 15 minutes until the quinoa is tender. If there’s any water left, make sure you drain the quinoa first.
- While the quinoa is cooking, you can prepare the chicken. Add the olive oil to a large skillet and heat over medium high heat. Add the chicken pieces, season with the salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Cook for about 8 minutes, until chicken is no longer pink but it’s just starting to brown a bit. Remove chicken from skillet and let cool.
- In a large bowl toss together the kale, cooked chicken, quinoa, sunflower seeds and raisins.
Lemon Vinaigrette
- Whisk together all the ingredients for the lemon vinaigrette in a small bowl. Adjust salt and pepper as necessary.
- Pour the vinaigrette over the kale salad and toss really well. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese before serving.
Recipe Notes
- The beauty of this kale and quinoa salad is that it will absorb the flavor of the lemon vinaigrette over time, tasting even better the next day! Covered and stored in the fridge, it will keep for 3-5 days.
- Please keep in mind that nutritional information is a rough estimate and can vary greatly based on products used.
This vinaigrette is amazing! Thank you!
Hey Terric,
We are so glad you enjoyed it! It’s a really tasty one!
This was a great recipe. Thank you!!
Do recipe ingredient amounts change at all if chicken is omitted?
You can keep everything else the same!
Amazing! I don’t care for fruit in a salad so I left out the raisins, and I didn’t have sunflower seeds so i subbed pecans. So good! Thanks for a great recipe.
Yay! So glad you liked it 🙂
I just made this and it is so good. I had it at a restaurant in London and had been searching for a recipe that was similar to the one I ate there. This is it. I massaged the kale with some olive oil just before adding the ingredients. I also added extra honey to the dressing because I thought it was too tart for our tastes. I also used dried cranberries since I didn’t have raisins. I will be making this again and again.
Really, really good. I saw on Twitter where someone asked for the recipe for the lemon vinaigrette and the manager said it has: fresh thyme, shallots, olive oil, lemon juice, fresh ground pepper, salt, water, and honey. You are pretty much there and I think I like the garlic idea, but I may add some shallots as well. It is pretty darn delicious. Thank you for sharing this recipe. 🙂
Great, so glad you liked it. I’ll have to try adding shallots next time. 🙂
Can you please give a measurement for the garlic? As cloves differ in size.
It doesn’t matter, use as much garlic as you like.
I was also surprised at how much I loved this meal when I ordered it at Moxie’s. I followed the recipe but baked the chicken and added thyme and replaced the raisins for dried cranberries.
Absolutely scrumptious! The vinaigrette simply MAKES this so divine!
I had this at Moxies last evening…loved it…thank you doing this!💕
Hope you try it, it’s one of my favorite salads!
You were right! I made this for lunch today and it was very yummy! Only thing I did differently is I doubled the dressing. I had a salad similar to this when I was traveling once but could not find anything close to it again, this hit it on the nail head! Thanks!
I’m sure you love comments like “I followed this recipe, except I totally changed it…” haha, but I followed this recipe, except… well… I totally changed it. I’m new to your blog; I stumbled across it when I searched for “quinoa kale lemon salad” to try and recreate a salad I had from a catered lunch meeting at work. I used your vinaigrette recipe exactly, but changed the proportions of kale to quinoa (about 1.5 cup raw quinoa, cooked in 3 c chicken stock, and 3 cups torn up kale), used feta instead of parmesan and pine nuts instead of sunflower seeds, and used some chicken I had previously seasoned/grilled and then frozen. BUT, the vinaigrette was perfect for recreating what I’ve been remembering about this salad for months. Thanks!
Hi! Quick question about the sodium, it seems very high. Do you know where that comes from? That way I can omit it, if possible. Thanks!
You can omit the salt from the dressing since you’ll already be rubbing the kale leaves with salt and oil. I wouldn’t skip that step, it makes the kale nice and soft and palatable.
Tastes just like Moxies if you use currents, pumpkin seeds and grano padano!!! So good!